Minnesotans struggle to find secure housing due to rent spike, new report shows

MINNEAPOLIS — Too many Minnesota families are struggling to put a roof over their heads. A new report from the State of the State Housing found that median rent jumped by 8% in the last year.

"Housing is a basic human need, everyone needs a place to lay their head at night," said  Minnesota Housing Partnership Executive Director Anne Mavity.

According to the report, half of all renting families pay more than they can afford for housing. It also showed that evictions were up 8% over the previous year. That only adds to this tragic number: Close to 20,000 Minnesotans struggling with homelessness on any given night.

"Across Minnesota we are actually 114,000 units short that are available and affordable to our lowest income community members," Mavity said.

Mavity says affordable housing means no more than 30% of your household income.

"For the folks who are serving us our coffee in the morning for the folks who are taking care of our kids taking care of my mom right now those essential jobs don't pay enough to afford an average two-bedroom apartment," Mavity said.

She says it's not their fault, the state's housing system is broken and work is underway to repair it.

"There is a broad spectrum of need and people who are looking for housing and sometimes that supportive housing and you need case management you need support for addiction and sometimes we just need affordable units," said the Executive Director of the PERIS Foundation Carla Godwin.

Lydia Apartment and Anishinaabe Apartments are examples of how organizations are working to fix the problem.

"The price to build in terms of development is often standing in the way and so we have public and private partners trying to figure out the way forward in those types of situations and try to figure out how to get enough units built, " Godwin said.